I was driving into SF today to tape some segments for Marketwatch when Herb Meyer came on one of those right-wing talk shows to discuss his DVD Siege of Western Civilization. Which I just ordered. There is no question in my mind that this may be the first thrust in a documentarian effort by the right-wingers. When Richard Viguerie was on C-SPAN he was chatting about how the New Right managed to take over the country. He said that the only weakness in the attack was a lack informational documentaries. All the skills needed to produce such things were dominated by the left. A few months later this DVD comes out not as a book, but as a quasi-documentary and Meyer is floating around pimping it like crazy. Curiously much of what he said on the radio show was identical to what is written here. My favorite line is:
“We’ve forgotten what Western civilization is. We no longer teach it in the schools. If you come to the schools where I live and ask a group of high school students ‘what is Western Civilization?’ They’ll tell you it’s slavery, the oppression of women and we don’t recycle.”
Sad, but mostly true. Anyone who watches the Jay Leno “Jaywalking” segments knows that the public is generally pretty stupid, at least around LA.
Inside the borders of the U.S. it seems like the “siege of Western civilization” however outside the borders, it seems like the “siege BY Western civilization”. Depends on how and where you look at things.
Stupidity and Profits are proportional. This is why America is the number one economic power in the world, and it is why the people in the “know” want to keep that way– and have.
What the hell are you talking about, david?
This is a perfect example of the Politically Correct tail wagging the dog. The Patriot Act extends the powers of the FBI and Justice department to help protect us against terrorists. Mostly very reasonable things they should have had, like tapping cell phones.
The Democrats need a response, so they blow up reasonable concerns about concentration of power and overstepping bounds into the destruction of our civil liberties.
How much freedom have you really lost? We’ve got John complaining about the US turning into a Police State, while the Iraqis are suffering the effects of not having any police (which IS our fault.) Please put things into perspective.
“Stupidity and Profits are proportional.”
If you want to teach that to your children, go right ahead. Just don’t blame the right when they turn into losers who can’t seem to get ahead. People in the “know” don’t want to keep it that way, they merely know that’s the way it is, and will be for some time.
Profits are the reason this country is wealthy, and that you and I are wealthy (at least compared to the rest of the world). You or I may not worry about profits on a daily basis, but many somebodies are worrying about it on behalf of every single person that works in the world. Or they’re worrying about fundraising for their non-profit.
Someone has to worry about how they’re going to pay your salary.
And I hope every day that my bosses are the smartest bunch on the planet. Even the communists in China have to rationalize their system with the way the world works.
It’s the way the world works, and it’s much better than the way the nobles, serfs, and emperors used to have the world working.
This alternating “head in the sand” (terrorism will go away if we act nice) “pie in the sky” (why can’t we all get along and work for non-profits that recycle) view of the world that’s promulgated by the left is why you will be stuck in the doldrums for a long time to come. Nobody trusts that the left is in touch with reality.
I know that’s rich given our current president, but he has the benefit of his delusions turning into self-fulfilling prophecies.
I really don’t understand the “corporations are evil” mentality. It’s a distraction to tackling our real problems.
Our history class in 5th (through 7th?) grade was called Western Civilization, from Sumeria to Greece, Rome, and the Renaissance. Of course I was blessed, through my Dad’s stubbornness, of going to a private, Catholic school. An institution known for keeping things in perspective.
That’s what the religious right brings to the debate. Perspective. The left is obsessed with the work we still have to do to improve our society, but that’s not what you emphasize when you are fighting for the future of scientific, enlightened, TOLERANT civilization.
Tolerance comes in degrees, just like everything else.
I was disappointed that Bush won, because he’s taking the Republican party and the country further towards the right-wing extreme. But that extreme is nothing compared to the extremes of Islam, which teach murder in the name of God (the extremes do). The religious right understands about putting life, society, and the world in perspective. Whether you call it “God’s perspective” or “historical perspective”, we need to see the forest for the trees, especially in the context of terrorism.
Ironically, I agree with analysts who say Islamic terrorism isn’t nearly as large a threat to the US and freedom as totalitarian communism was. But I think the American people feel in their gut that it is a threat. We need to start from that reality together, and figure out how we will fight it, rather than sticking our heads in the sand (which is the posture I see from Pelosi and her ilk, based here in the Bay Area.)
I agree with the quote, but I’m not sure if “Jaywalking” really tells us anything about Americans’ knowledge. More likely people think something to themselves along the line of “If I look stupid, I get on TV; if I know all the answers, then I’m not funny, and I get edited out.” I think most of the dumbness we see on “Jaywalking” is intentional because people want to say to their friends “Check me out on Leno! Woo hoo!” My son used to tell me he couldn’t read an analog clock just to yank my chain. Now he can name more cabinet members and sports personalities than I can. Same thing.
Profits are part of nature. Find any lifeform that expends more energy than it consumes and it will have died of starvation.
Profit is being rewarded for your behavior with equal or greater resource yield for resources expended. This is the backbone of the theory of evolution. No lifeform that fails to yield a profit will be alive for very long.
T.C. Moore, I repond (>> indicates your writing):
>>The Patriot Act extends the powers of the FBI and Justice department to help protect us against terrorists.
Fox New’s Channel’s Judge Andrew Napolitano addresses the Patriot Act in his March 2005 interview with Reason Magazine:
Reason: What’s your case against the USA PATRIOT Act?
Napolitano: Let’s put aside all of the procedural problems with enacting it. Forget about the fact that there was no debate. Forget about the fact that most members of Congress didn’t even have an opportunity to read it. It is a direct assault on at least three amendments to the Constitution: the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, and the Fifth Amendment. The PATRIOT Act legitimates the notion that if we give up certain freedoms, the government will keep us safer. I reject that notion from a moral and legal point of view. It doesn’t work. The government doesn’t need our freedom to keep us safer. No one– no lawyer, judge, or historian– can point to a single incident in American history where national security was impaired because someone insisted on their right to free speech or their right to privacy or their right to due process.
The judge goes on in the interview to blast the PATRIOT ACT. He really puts things into perspective.
>> How much freedom have you really lost?
In NYC anyone caught photographing in the subways can now be arrested. The government can listen to my phone calls, intercept my email, and get private banking, library records WITHOUT a warrant or subpoena all in the name of national security. Who determines if it is a national security concern? THE GOVERNMENT! America fought the Revolution against the British Empire so that we could be FREE from government tyranny. Why would you want to turn the clock and desecrate the graves of our Founding Fathers?
>>If you want to teach that to your children [stupidity and profits are proportional], go right ahead. Just don’t blame the right when they turn into losers who can’t seem to get ahead.
I said that tongue in cheek, but there is truth in it. What I mean is that in order for a company to sell us something they must create a desire for it. The “stupidity” comes in when we are induced by their advertisements to buy something we really don’t need ($200 sneakers, rolex watches, fancy cars, etc.) And judging by many people that I know who are carrying debt on credit cards at usury rates I would say that it is not intelligent to be paying off something today you bought ten years ago and that you’ve probably already thrown away. I will teach my son to remain in control of his mind at all times because if he doesn’t there are others shoving in line to do it for him.
What’s your definition of a loser? When I go to a restaurant and find the dishes and cutlery spotless I know the dishwasher is a winner. When a President passes laws that undermines the essence of what America stands for, I call him a loser. Getting ahead in life is not about getting the highest title. It’s about getting the highest ethics, morality and wisdom. Prestige is for fools.
>> Profits are the reason this country is wealthy
Correction: GREED is the reason this country is wealthy. Greed on the parts of both the seller and the buyer. I wouldn’t place too much faith in people who’s primary concern is whether they are going to turn a profit on you or not.
>> It’s the way the world works
This is a cop out. Plus, it is statement of failure and accepting the status quo. There would never have been any progress if we just accepted the ways things were.
>> This alternating “head in the sand” (terrorism will go away if we act nice)
Who said there was terrorism here in the first place? The only thing you know AS FACT is that planes flew into the WTC, Pentagon and the ground in Pennsylvania on 9/11. EVERYTHING you know about that EVENT was told to you by GOVERNMENT sources. Anyone with FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE (primary witnesses) was KILLED. ALL the evidence was destroyed. Any surviving circumstantial evidence was gotten rid of or hidden from the public in the name of “national security”. The black boxes were not found, even though they were the single most important evidence of what TRUELY happened. We found scattered fingers, wallets and those red “EXIT” signs in the rumble but couldn’t find a box designed to withstand enormous crashes. There was not one act of terrorism on American soil (except the earlier attempt on the WTC) before or after 9/11 by Al Queda. We have more to fear about with Timothy McVeighs, street crime, getting hit by lightning or dying in a car crash. Have you ever studied magic, psychology, and mass marketing? Where are you getting your info about the event of 9/11? Everything that ANYONE knows about what happened that day comes from ONE SOURCE and one source ONLY: THE GOVERNMENT.
That is a scary notion.